


Nightmares

by Hermaline75



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Dream Sex, Jötunn Loki, M/M, Manipulation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-09
Updated: 2014-02-09
Packaged: 2018-01-11 17:49:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1176046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hermaline75/pseuds/Hermaline75
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The war between Asgard and Jotunheim did not end with Odin and Laufey on the battlefield. Rather their sons, the crown princes, were left to continue the fight. </p><p>Unwilling to execute his enemy, Thor decides to show mercy and have him imprisoned in Asgard. Little does he know, his captive has ways of getting into his head. Literally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> So this is quite old. I wrote it about a year ago, and I'm not entirely happy with it, though there are parts I like. I do feel I've improved somewhat as a writer in the time since.  
> (I also think this features the first M/M explicit scene I ever wrote...)

It was the third time that week that Thor had awoken in the middle of the night, his head full of screaming, blood, and fire.

He slipped from his bed and padded silently to the window, his feet bare against the cold stone. He gazed at the stars, at the faint glow of the Bifrost, without really seeing them. The visions from his dreams still distracted him.

No one had warned him about this. They spoke of battle as glorious, victory as complete. No one had said that winning would haunt him.

The screaming echoed in his skull. The cries of warriors cut down, the wails of their families, the tears of children as the triumphant Asgardians walked the streets of the once-proud cities as conquerors.

The months that had followed his final defeat of Jötunheim had passed too quickly. The never-ending war, fought by his father and his grandfather before him, was over and yet it would never be, could never be over. What did that mean for him, for his reign? As a warrior ruler, could he also lead his people in times of peace? He wanted peace, of course, craved it. He had sworn not to make the mistake his father had, that he would destroy the line of Laufey and end the war forever. And yet...

When Sif had dragged the Jötun prince before him, shackled and humiliated, his head forced onto the executioner’s block, Thor found that he could not bring Mjölnir down. Instead he had ordered that his adversary be imprisoned in perpetuity.

He was still troubled by the memory of those red eyes; the young giant on his knees, his eyes burning with hatred and defiance. Yet so cold. Like frostbite. And he was so... small. Much smaller than the Frost Giants that made up his army. Smaller than some Asgardians even, though there was no mistaking that blue, ridged skin.

Thor wondered if it had been a mistake. Letting him live, bringing him into Asgard. The mere knowledge that such hatred was chained up so close by bothered him. It was a constant, dull ache.

At first he’d wanted this prince, this Loki Laufeyson, to be treated as befitted his noble rank. Thor almost wanted to treat him as an equal, wondering if perhaps, in time, he might return the prince to his people, to rule, if truces could be drawn up. He’d been given rooms, servants, the promise that all his wants would be attended to if he would just remain within the palace. The sullen silence which greeted everything was not enough to discourage this plan; Thor had been confident that he would see reason, eventually.

There were various escape attempts made over the first few weeks. Thor had guards stationed in what he hoped was a subtle manner. Loki began to remain inside his rooms, still refusing to speak, often apparently sitting motionless for hours at a time. In fact, if he had not eaten, it would have been impossible to say that he was in the palace at all. He asked for nothing, accepted what was given to him, and seemed emotionless. Thor avoided his company, in the hopes that he would get used to the palace as home without the constant sight of his jailor. Then they might have met on more equivalent terms.

It was Fandral who’d discovered the serving girl. Loki had strangled her with his bare hands and laid her corpse neatly on his laundry. As if she would be taken away and dealt with as easily as his worn tunics.

The people of Asgard would not accept this. Loki still refused to speak as he was brought to answer for his crime, those red eyes never leaving Thor as he passed sentence, still smouldering with detestation but nothing to the burning glare Thor had endured on Jötunheim.

Thor had faced fierce criticism for his decision not to execute. Blood for blood, they demanded. Sif in particular had been very vocal with her objections. She was now performing most of the prison guard duties herself, clearly thinking, if no longer saying, that Thor’s decision was wrong.

The collar had been her idea. Apparently, when given too much space, Loki had bitten one of her assistants and she wanted his teeth out of striking range. She’d wanted a gag or muzzle of some kind, but Thor was adamant that the hostage should keep the power of speech, even if he was refusing to use it. Hence the simple loose-fitting iron collar which tethered him to the wall. The chain was quite long, allowing him to stand, but heavy enough to limit his movements and allow entrance to the cell without fear.

According to Sif’s reports, the prisoner was content. He seemed to have no desires, no wants. He would simply sit and stare at nothing, unmoved by threats or kindnesses. They gave him food, he ate. Water, he drank. Books were left untouched. And he said nothing.

He had been silent for three months. Ever since he’d left Jötunheim in fact.

A shiver brought Thor out of his reverie. The night was colder than he had thought. He knew he must sleep for the good of the realm, and yet to sleep would mean facing those screams again. Seeing those eyes...

They had threatened the mortal realm, he told himself. They had attacked Asgard time and time again in attempts to reclaim their weapon. They deserved it.

He wished he believed himself.

Instead, he got dressed. He knew where he had to go.

Sif’s guard was surprised to see him, but he motioned the man into silence and then to leave. Thor approached the cell, the captive’s back to him, curled up and shirtless and with a blanket tangled about his feet. Thor supposed that Frost Giants perhaps didn’t feel the cold as he gazed on the raised vertebrae of the man’s back, the slight bruising beneath his thick black hair where the collar was chafing his neck. Had he always been so thin, or had he lost weight since being taken? Thor found himself questioning whether Asgardian food had the right nutrients for someone of Jötunheim.

The chain clanked as Loki rolled over, his red eyes already open, the hint of a smile around his lips.

“I knew you’d come, Lord of Asgard. The only question was when.”

Thor realised with a shock that this was the first time he’d ever heard Loki speak.

\--

It was not an unpleasant voice. That was what surprised him most. All the Frost Giants Thor had ever spoken with had had deep guttural voices, more like growling than talking. But this was... soft. Pleasant, even. Perhaps it was to do with smaller vocal chords.

He was taken aback. He dropped to one knee before he really knew what he was doing, part of his brain still concerned with ranks, nobility and politeness.

“Prince Loki,” he ventured. “I am sorry to disturb you at such an hour.”

Laughter from the cell as Loki sat up. “I think once you’ve chained a guest up, you’re rather past the point of titles, ‘Prince’ Thor. You are not disturbing me; I was not asleep. I knew you would come.”

Thor stood again. “You couldn’t possibly have known.”

“And yet I did.”

He was tired, that’s all it was. Thor found himself looking into those red eyes once more, now empty of the disdain he had always found in them before. Something about this made no sense.

“I...” Definitely tired. “I’m not sure I recall why I’m here.”

“Terms, most likely. You’re here to discuss the terms of my release.”

No; that wasn’t right.

“And my subsequent return to Jötunheim, of course. Along with the Casket of Infinite Winters.” Loki was continuing.

“I can’t release you. You’re a murderer. You killed an innocent woman. And you are an enemy of my people.”

And there it was. The hatred. And it seemed like it had always been there, just below the surface, waiting.

“No, Thor. You came here to let me out.”

“No... No, I... I came here...” He didn’t know why. And suddenly his heart was filled with dread. Something had compelled him to come down here and it hadn’t been his own will. His mind seemed full of fog, a mist from which he couldn’t escape. He was spinning, he was flying, he was drowning, he was opening the cell door, he was undoing the collar, Loki’s laughter, so close he could feel his breath...

“My Lord?” Sif’s voice seemed far away, as though he were hearing her from underwater. “My Lord!”

Her hand on his shoulder. Her face swam into vision above him. He sat up, gasping.

“I fell...” he panted. “How did I fall?”

“You’re tired, my Lord. You shouldn’t be down here. You’re very stressed and you need to sleep.”

“Sif?” He grabbed her hands, urgently. “It wasn’t me, Sif. I didn’t want to. He made me, it wasn’t...”

“What wasn’t?”

“I didn’t mean to let him out.”

She stared at him in confusion, then her eyes glanced over his shoulder. Thor turned. Loki’s sleeping form was still in the cell, exactly as he had found him, his back turned, apparently undisturbed.

“I have the only set of keys, Thor.” Sif was saying. “If you really want to question the Jötun I’m sure it can wait until morning. You won’t rouse him now anyway; he’s proved to be a heavy sleeper. Go back to bed.”

Thor allowed her to have him escorted back to his chambers.

Sif was evidently concerned. And she had every right to be, he reasoned. Months of avoidance and suddenly he was paying midnight calls to a prison cell. And fainting, it would seem. Fainting and hallucinations. Those were new.

Exhaustion didn’t seem to explain why he had gone down there in the first place though. He’d just known that he had to be there. He’d hate to see Sif’s face if he tried to explain that. Something had to be wrong with him.

He had half a mind to go to the library, to try to read up on any illness that might be affecting him. It could be stress; it could be any number of things. That fever from one of the wounds he’d sustained during the final onslaught into Jötunheim for example. He might still be feeling the after effects.

He flopped into bed instead. If it were over-exertion, sleep was the only cure. Even if that meant...

_He was running through the palace, rushing past all the adults who stood in his way._

Adults?

_A middle-aged servant scolded him for being so boisterous. They were always telling him off for being boisterous. Loki never got into trouble, even though it was nearly always his fault or his idea to raid the kitchens or to play in the cellars or to go exploring through the palace spires._

Loki?

_Yes, it was always Loki’s fault. Even now. If he’d played fair, Thor wouldn’t be running through the corridors like he wasn’t supposed to. But he’d catch him. He always did, he always beat his little brother._

Brother?

_Thor stopped outside the vaults. Loki was bound to be in here. They weren’t supposed to be in here, they weren’t allowed. He stood on tiptoe to open the door._

The guards? Where are the guards?

_It took him a moment to get used to the dim light. The chamber was full of glimmers, glowing objects. Dangerous things. He wasn’t supposed to be here._

There should have been guards.

_“Loki?” he called. “Where are you?”_

_A giggle echoed around the room._

_“I know you’re here!” Thor shouted._

_“You’ll never find me!” came the reply, its location impossible to pinpoint due to the resonance from the walls._

_Thor walked as silently as he could. It was creepy down here. He peered into each hollow in turn, seeking his brother_ – his brother? _– among the relics taken from each realm the Asgardians had defeated. And in the centre..._

_“Found you!”_

_Loki, his little brother, continued to stare in wonder at the blue glow, his pale face lit up by it. Thor joined him. “What is it?” he asked._

_“It’s mine, Thor,” whispered Loki. “It’s mine. You have to give it to me.”_

_“Alright.” Thor reached out to the box, his hands growing colder the closer he got, so cold it hurt._

_“You have to give it to me, Thor. It’s mine...”_

He woke in the dawn light. In his bed, his bed as Lord of Asgard. He flexed his hands. It was just the chill in the morning air that was making them cold. Nothing more.

“I have no brother,” he said out loud. “I have no brother.”

\--

He needed to talk to someone about this, but whom? Not Sif, that was obvious. And not Fandral either. Hogun wouldn’t understand. So that left...

“Volstagg? I have a question I would ask you.”

“Of course, my Lord. Will you have breakfast?”

“Uh...” Thor looked at the table, laden with all manner of foods, but felt no desire for any of them. “I shan’t, thank you. I wanted to ask you about dreams. Strange dreams.”

The worry in Volstagg’s face told him that this may have been a mistake. Volstagg was shrewder than he let on; in fact the façade of simplicity was part of his cunning.

“Lady Sif tells me that you made a visit to the prison last night, my Lord.”

“Yes, I... wanted to see the Jötun.”

“She said that you were behaving very strangely, begging your pardon. She thinks you really ought to see a healer to help you sleep better.”

“Volstagg, I slept better than I have for weeks after I visited the cells,” said Thor, unwilling to discuss his fainting fit. “But as I did, I dreamt. And my dream has disturbed me somewhat.”

Volstagg said nothing but looked at him encouragingly. Thor sighed.

“I dreamt of the Jötun. Of Prince Loki. We were children, playing together.”

“Could it be that you are displacing your memories of the war onto a more comforting setting?”

“But that’s not all of it. We went into the vaults, he wanted me to give him the Casket. And he was...” Now or never. “I dreamt he was my brother.”

Volstagg carefully chewed some bacon as he thought this over. “So... you were also Jötun in this dream?”

“No. No... He was Asgardian. Or he looked like us anyway. I’m not sure.” The disparity between the dream and reality hadn’t registered with Thor until that moment.

“I believe, my Lord, that you should not worry yourself so much about where your mind goes at night. Why, I dreamt recently that I was a pig about to be slaughtered by my wife, and yet I am not concerned by it. It was not real. Dreams are strange things. They cannot be controlled, and therefore one shouldn’t pay them much heed, especially in cases such as this when they make no sense. You with a Jötun brother? Absurd.”

Thor thanked Volstagg for his counsel, trying to ignore the slight look of unease behind his friend’s smile.

He decided to exhaust himself that day, aiming for dreamless undisturbed sleep. He read the guard reports, trained in the yard, signed and sealed countless messages to the rulers of other realms, held court, listened to the concerns and complaints of his people, forced himself to eat despite his lack of appetite, and tried to keep his mind as far from the prison as possible.

By the time he fell into bed, not even bothering to undress, he thought he had been successful. He could barely think, let alone...

_“Sssh... Relax. Let me do all the work.”_

_Someone was gently but firmly removing his breeches. He sighed contentedly, eyes closed. Yes, this was what he wanted, they’d already removed his shirt and the feeling of those cold fingers running over his flesh was..._

Cold...

_His hand closed around the chain and he pulled, dragging the figure bent over his cock up to face him._

The collar. This wasn’t right...

_“My Lord?” A cold hand against his cheek, two fingers in his mouth. “I hadn’t even started yet... Lay back...”_

_The chain slid through his fingers as Loki snaked back down his body, green eyes never leaving Thor’s as he dipped down, his tongue stroking up Thor’s length, first one side then the other before bending fully to take it in his mouth._

_Thor’s breath hitched and Loki’s eyes_ – green, why are they green, why is he pale? – _flicked back to his face, a dark chuckle escaping his lips as he swallowed Thor again and again but painfully slowly. Thor’s hips bucked unwillingly, and Loki answered with faster strokes, his tongue massaging Thor’s cock each time, his laughing eyes full of-_

Hatred.

_Thor kicked him off. Only the chain attached to the wall at the head of the bed stopped Loki from tumbling off completely. He sprawled in a heap, wiping his chin._

_“My Lord,” he said. “You’re not done...”_

_Thor glanced down at his erection, and back to Loki. He seized him and threw him back onto the bed. Loki grunted before obediently raising his hands above his head to the... Yes, the shackles. They’ve always been there... Thor clicked them shut around Loki’s wrists, noting the slight bruising from last time._

Last time?

_“I thought my Lord was too tired to fuck me this evening?” Loki was saying. Thor wondered how he seemed so in control, restrained as he was. Thor would have to teach him a little humility tonight._

_His cock was still wet with saliva but he wasn’t sure it would be enough as he moved Loki up the bed until his head was propped against the pillows._

_“Oil’s on the table,” Loki said, as though reading his thoughts. Of course it was; it was always there. Thor paused as he used it to look back at his captive. The long arms and lean flesh, surprisingly strong legs, the cock growing hard from anticipation alone. And all his._

_He climbed aboard the bed again, spreading Loki’s legs, enjoying his eager lust-filled look, and took him. Slowly. Painfully slowly, giving him a taste of his own medicine. Loki moaned, shutting his eyes, turning his face to the side, into the pillow. Thor jerked his head around by the chin._

_“No. You will watch. I want you to see what I do to you.”_

_Loki dutifully turned his gaze to where their bodies met as Thor pulled him to a more accessible angle, the chains above his head almost taut. Thor’s strokes were faster now. He found himself getting lost, this perfect, strange body responding to his touch, crying out whenever he went deep._

_“Thor! Th-Thor!”_

_Thor slapped him across the cheek. “What do you call me?”_

_“My Lord!” Loki’s arms strained against the manacles. “Please, my Lord, let me go. Let me out, let me come... You have to let me out...”_

_Thor leant in to Loki’s face, their breaths mingling for a moment before kissing him fiercely, possessively. He noted the moan of pleasure against his lips as he took Loki’s cock in hand, spreading the precome, gently stroking it. He let go, enjoying the hurt and confusion on Loki’s face._

_“You’ll come when I say you can,” he whispered._

_And suddenly the hatred was there in unexpectedly red eyes as Loki lunged for him, at his neck, sinking his teeth into the soft flesh._

_Thor shoved him back, his own blood dripping from Loki’s lips, his hands reaching beneath the collar, the skin of his knuckles scraping against the iron as he choked the Jötun._

_He suddenly realised his cock was still in Loki. His eyes glanced involuntarily downwards for the briefest of moments, but he knew Loki had seen by the way he laughed and bucked his hips into the connection, even as Thor throttled him._

_“This is exactly what I did to that little Asgard bitch,” he hissed, his natural blue colour spreading over his face and down his chest from where Thor gripped him, his muscles convulsing. “Feels good, doesn’t it, oh, noble Thor...”_

Thor fell out of bed.

It was day, mid-morning. He stared around his chamber as though seeing it for the first time. There were no shackles. There had never been shackles.

He summoned a servant.

“Why did no one wake me?”

The youth faltered under his gaze. “The Lady Sif, my Lord, she said it was vital that you not be disturbed.”

“I see,” Thor looked down at his sweat-stained clothes, the one’s he’d gone to sleep in last night; no one had taken them off. But there was something else, not sweat, a tell-tale stickiness beneath his breeches...  He shuddered. “I want to bathe. Immediately.”

“I’ll have hot water brought up directly, my Lord.”

Thor looked at his bed, his place of refuge now filled with confusing thoughts and haunting laughter.

“No. Er, not here. I’ll bathe...” Where was safe? “In the throne room. Bring the water there and see that I’m not disturbed.”

The boy could not hide the confusion in his voice as he answered, “Yes, my Lord.”

Thor wondered who his strange behaviour would be reported to this time.

\--

The water soothed him. The distant muffled sounds of life in Asgard reached him as he lay in the large bath, incongruously placed in the middle of the empty throne room.

It was a dream. It was only a dream. Volstagg had said not to take any heed of dreams. No matter how vivid.

He had never behaved in that way, would never behave that way in reality. He’d experimented in his youth, but never so rough, so cruel...

Thor sighed and tried to wash away the images dancing though his head. He almost longed for the screaming to return. At least that had been simple.

He closed his eyes and slid further in, letting the water wash over him, his muscles still aching from the punishment he’d given them in the yard the day before.

And suddenly he was conscious of the fact that he was not alone. He opened his eyes.

Loki smiled at him from the throne, one leg draped unceremoniously over the arm, his red eyes cold and mocking.

Thor was acutely aware that he was naked. He remained mostly submerged, trying to hide his surprise and his fear.

“I’m sorry, does my appearance disturb you?” Loki was saying. “I can always change it...”

And he did, right there. He shifted from his real form to that of a child, to the boy Thor had seen in the vault, to a blonde-haired youth, to a beautiful woman reminiscent of Sif, to an old man, to the adult form from last night...

“This is a dream,” Thor said. “I’m dreaming this. You’re not real.”

Loki’s laughter echoed around the room. “Not quite. You’re not asleep this time, ‘Prince’ Thor. Or do you prefer ‘my Lord’?”

Thor tensed. “You can’t...”

“Can’t what? Can’t know what we did last night? I was there, Thor.”

“No. It was a dream. It was just a dream.”

“Yes. But I was still there. And I was in the vault. And in the prison as you released me. And with you on the battlefield every night for months as you slaughtered my people again and again.”

“I didn’t want to.” Thor said, pathetically.

“And yet you did, gladly. We only want what is rightfully ours. That which was stolen from us.”

“Which you would use to threaten the peace of the realms!”

“Ah, yes, that precious peace which you so bravely uphold with your wars. Yet when the moment came to make the decisive blow, you could not do it. You need the war, it is what defines you. But for that you need your opposite. Free me and fight me. It’s what you want.”

“I can’t free you. You are a criminal; you kill for fun, not for justice...”

“Ah, justice. Almost as noble as peace, justice. I was born into a war-torn country. My father was crushed by yours and the source of our power taken from us. Jötunheim is broken, it was defeated, and yet you return to break us again and again, and I am forced to fight you as our fathers fought before us. Where is the justice in that?”

“Work with me, Loki. Together we can make peace.”

“Free me and return the Casket, you’ll get your peace.”

“Imagine I do. Swear to me that the Casket will only be used to repair the damage done to Jötunheim during the war.”

“I swear that Jötunheim will never threaten Asgard for as long as I live.”

Thor considered this. “What of the other realms? Alfheim, Midgard, all the others, what of them?”

“They are not your realms to defend, Asgardian.”

“Can you not see why I cannot release you? You will destroy the mortal realm, you will destroy all the realms in your quest for power, to right the wrongs that were done to your land generations ago. This is revenge, not rebuilding!”

Loki stood up and approached him.

“I tried to be lenient, Thor. I am inside your head. I tried to appeal to you as a brother, as a child, and you denied me. I came to you as a lover, allowed you to take your pleasure of me, gave you power over me, and you abused it.” He crouched beside Thor. “I have made you do things in your sleep you never thought you would do, but most of it was your subconscious will. Imagine what I can make you see if I take full control.”

He grabbed Thor by the hair and whispered in his ear.

“I can make you kill your friends, watch the light leave their eyes as you crush their life’s breath from them. My vigilant jailor, the Lady Sif? I can make you murder her in a different way every night, even as she pleads for mercy. I can make you hear your mother’s screams as you slit your father’s throat. I can give you children and have you dash their tiny heads against the wall. I can make your sleep a living nightmare, I will make you a monster in your own bed, how long will you hold out before I drive you mad, Thor?”

“Guards!” shouted Thor. “Guards!”

They entered at a run and looked at him in confusion.

“What are you waiting for?” he demanded. “Seize him!”

“My Lord,” the captain ventured. “You are alone.”

Thor turned. There was no one there. And yet he could still feel those cold fingers tangled in his hair.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Sorry. I must have fallen asleep and had a nightmare.”

The guards turned to leave.

Thor felt Loki’s breath at his ear once more: “Of course, I don’t have to drive you mad,” he whispered. “If everyone already believes you are...”

Thor leapt from the bath, not caring for the water which flowed onto the tiled floor. He dried himself hurriedly and dressed in the clean clothes the servant had laid out for him.

“I might not be able to beat you in my own head, but in the real world I have the upper hand,” he said to the room in general. He wasn’t even sure if Loki was listening.

He left in a rush, the guards taken aback as he barrelled past them.

“My Lord?”

“I have urgent business in the prison.”

\--

Sif was not pleased to see him.

“My Lord,” she said. “I really must insist that you leave. You shouldn’t be here.”

“Open the cell, Sif. I want to speak to our guest.”

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“No, Thor. I won’t.”

“How dare you? How dare you disobey your prince? I order you to open the cell.”

She stared at him defiantly but soon lowered her gaze and reached for the keys on her belt.

“Lock me in with him. And then leave us. I will speak to him alone. Do not return until I call you by name, no matter what you hear.”

Sif shook her head desperately. “Thor, this is madness!”

“Do as I say!”

He had never spoken to her so harshly. The hurt was evident in her face as she turned the key in the lock behind him, and threw one last glance at him as she closed the prison door. He imagined her sitting patiently outside, wondering what had become of her old friend, but he couldn’t mind that now.

Loki lay on the cell floor, apparently asleep. Thor nudged him with a foot. His eyes opened.

“Get up,” Thor said.

No response.

“Now that we are both fully corporeal, I would speak to you. Get up.”

Still nothing. Thor lost patience and grabbed the chain linking Loki to the walls, jerking him into a sitting position.

“Well, this is a familiar view,” Loki said, finding himself face-to-face with Thor’s crotch.

He stood up quickly, drawing Thor to him until their bodies were aligned, the nails of one hand digging into Thor’s back, the other hand stroking him through his breeches, the cold from his bare chest permeating Thor’s tunic.

“If this is what you wanted, you only had to ask.”

For a second Thor considered throwing him to the floor, holding him down, fucking him until he couldn’t move, until he couldn’t speak, showing him what happens when you challenge an Asgardian.

He shook Loki off and stepped away.

“I’m inside your head, remember?” Loki laughed. “I know what you want. Or rather, I know that you don’t know what you want. Do you want to fight me or fuck me, Thor? I know they are easily confused sometimes...”

“Stop. Stop talking. This isn’t me. Whatever it is you’re doing to me, just stop it.”

“Free me and I’ll stop.”

“No.”

Loki sighed. “I must admit, you’re one of the toughest minds I’ve ever come up against. You are not the matter-over-mind brute that you at first appear. After you failed to execute me, I had expected to be free within a month. Yet here I am. But if it wasn’t my influence that convinced you not to kill me, what was it?”

“It was my decision.”

“I believe that. You do seem the merciful type, even if you did destroy my people in cold blood.”

Thor winced as Loki continued. “How do you think I became crown-prince of the Frost Giants? Your people believe in heredity, as do mine, but with my lack of stature I was opposed at every turn. They said I was too weak to rule, and my father agreed. So I learned to manipulate. I learned to lie, cheat, bully and coerce until they realised that I had to rule them. That I was their superior. And then gradually I learned to get inside the heads of my enemies. A useful trick for a tactician, I’m sure you’ll agree.”

“Yet I defeated you.”

“Did you? I took a big risk, I’ll admit, but I believe it will pay off. I learned as much about you as possible, ‘Prince’ Thor. I allowed you to conquer my land, I allowed you to take me prisoner. I took a gamble in assuming I could make you let me live and lead me to Asgard. But you did, and of your own accord! And then I was able to make a start on breaking you. Everyone breaks, Thor. Everyone. For some it takes appealing to their sense of loyalty, for others it’s guilt, or often sex. You, on the other hand, managed to resist all of those, or near enough, but I think I’ve found your weakness – friends. I haven’t even started to carry out my threats, and yet here you are, ready to give me what I want.”

“You mean the defeat of Jötunheim was just a ruse?”

Loki laughed, that infuriating laugh. “Of course, it was. Didn’t you think it was a little too easy? I practically let you walk in and take the realm!”

“You threw your people in my way, you let me slaughter them!”

Loki was suddenly angry. “No! I made sure there was a paltry defence force to prevent suspicion. It was you who murdered them. It was you who ignored their cries of surrender. You did that, not me!”

“We were at war!” Thor knew he was just making excuses.

There was a pause before Loki continued. “Once here I just had to be alone for the amount of time I required to weave dreams for you. Getting that time took more effort. You were so wretchedly decent to me. I needed to be alone without stupid servants wandering in all the time, trying to make sure I needed nothing, disturbing me. Even my attempts to escape did not have me locked in the kind of cell I wanted. So I killed the girl, knowing I would be chained up – I was through the first line of your mental defences by then, I knew you would not kill me – and I would have the peace and quiet I needed.”

“You- you killed her for no reason!”

“Excuse me? I killed her because I needed to be imprisoned. She was just in the right place at the wrong time. I took very little joy in it. She barely fought back.”

Thor was lost for words. It was so cold. There was no passion, Loki had merely seen a problem and a means to remove that problem and he’d just done it.

“So now, ‘Prince’ Thor, shall we call back your friend, explain that we’ve overcome our little differences, and take a walk down to the vaults?”

“Never.”

Loki sighed. “Why couldn’t you have given in earlier, Thor? Last night was fun, wasn’t it? Right up until you decided to be unkind to me. We could go back to that, I’m sure I could be more persuasive this time... I really take no pleasure in making you kill your friends night after night. Well, perhaps with the exception of Lady Sif. Do you know she doesn’t even have the decency to hate me? I am nothing to her, she doesn’t even fear me. I am just a piece of furniture that requires food, even though we’ve spent so much time in each other’s company. In fact, sometimes I think about entering her dreams, just for the challenge of attempting to break someone who gives me nothing to work with. I could always use what I know of her from you.”

Thor’s blood ran cold.

“What would you do to her?”

“Nothing permanent. If I couldn’t seduce her to my side in the usual way then I suppose I’d have her kill you. Every night.” His eyes narrowed as he thought this over. “No... That would be too easy. I’d have her fail every night. Every night another battle, every night another defeat. And every night, as I conquer her, I’ll whisper ‘A man could have defeated me’. I feel that would be more likely to break her, quickly.”

“You would not dare.”

“Wouldn’t I? I see now, Thor. I’ve been wasting my time in your dreams.” His eyes took in Thor’s body once again before coming to rest on his lips. “No matter how enjoyable it’s been. I should have targeted your friends from the start. But this way, you’ll know what I’m doing and what I am capable of making them see.”

“You will not.”

Loki moved closer, to the extent of his chain. “Free me. Give me the casket.”

“No.”

“Then you leave me no choice, Thor. Sweet dreams, Asgardians.”

“No,” said Thor. “It’s you who leaves me no choice, Loki.”

He called for Sif. She carefully locked the cell behind him. He looked over her shoulder at Loki’s triumphant expression as he spoke.

“Sif. Have a proclamation read out to all Asgard, send word to the other realms. We are to execute Prince Loki Laufeyson of Jötunheim for murder.”

“At dawn, my Lord?”

“No. At dusk. Tonight.”

Loki’s curses followed him out of the prison.

Part of him didn’t want to do it, but he would not sell his people to the darkness for his own wants.

No. They would sleep safe in their beds.

He knew as he brought the hammer down that it was not completely over. The crunch of Loki’s skull, the familiar hatred in his red eyes replacing the playfulness that had filled them earlier, the light leaving them forever.

He was almost afraid to close his eyes. He almost knew...

_“I’ve been waiting for you, Thor. I’ll always be here, waiting for you. What do you want to play?”_

_Loki laughed._


End file.
